True,...crowd funding and paid to the UAE Embassy in London or Sheikh Mo at Newmarket Craven Meeting on wednesday. That would be a sight to behold!

The ex wife was pleading poverty and as a banker working in the UAE I'm assuming he was worth a few bob and he'd only recently remarried to a Tunisian woman.  The will would certainly be interesting as would the second wife's internet history.  I'd question how rigourous the autopsy was for sure.

There was a case I recall reading about or watching a tv about a wealthy elderly titled aristocat from the UK  living like a playboy in Southern France who married a Moroccan woman and she did him in.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury

On 22 May 2007, the trial of Jamila M'Barek and Mohamed M'Barek opened at the Palais de Justice in Nice, two-and-a-half years after the death of the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury. The presiding judge of the jury trial was Nicole Besset, with Jean-Louis Moreau serving as the state prosecutor. Shaftesbury's widow was represented by attorney Franck De Vita, while her brother was represented by Melanie Juginger. The Ashley-Cooper family was represented by attorney Philippe Soussi.[42][45][46] A forensic examination of the skeletal remains revealed injuries including a broken ankle, and a double fracture to the larynx which indicated strangulation as the cause of death. At times, both Mme M'Barek and her brother admitted their involvement in the death of Lord Shaftesbury and the French authorities decided to charge both her and her brother with the crime of premeditated murder.[6]
Magistrate's investigative report

The trial began with a presentation of the investigative report, which was read to the court by Jean-Louis Moreau, the state prosecutor. The report described Shaftesbury's widow as "an escort girl who loved the high life" who "chose the life of a kept woman, with multiple affairs with men she chose for their bank accounts and their assets".[47] Having struck gold when she married the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, she then faced "looming financial disaster" in the event of a divorce and set out "consciously and without constraint, to accomplish his assassination".[47]

Testimony was presented that in October 2002, Mme M'Barek had convinced the peer that she was pregnant with his child, and as a result, Shaftesbury married her on 5 November 2002. Shaftesbury made out a new will leaving his new wife properties in Ireland and France. Two years later, with no child forthcoming, he began looking elsewhere for affection. When Shaftesbury initiated divorce proceedings, his wife feared losing her valuable inheritance and began to take steps to secure her financial future.[42][48]

Lady Frances Ashley-Cooper testified. "When my brother said he would divorce her, she would not accept". She stated that before the separation, Shaftesbury was convinced by his wife to sell the Versailles flat. Testimony continued, regarding the disappearance of antique furniture and family artifacts.

    [Jamila] and Mohammed arranged to empty the flat and when my brother asked where his mother's furniture had gone to, she said it was on a boat to Tunisia where it was going to be sold. My brother was distraught. This was cruel emotional blackmail. In fact, the furniture was in storage in Cannes, but my brother never knew that. I have just managed to get hold of the key.[6]

    —Lady Frances Ashley-Cooper

Defence statements

Mme M'Barek discounted the investigative report and stated that her marriage to Shaftesbury "was a curse", describing her husband as "a loner" who "had no friends" which is why "he drank a lot".[26][29] She portrayed him as a "violent, sex-crazed alcoholic, hooked on cocaine".[26][29] While she freely admitted that her brother had indeed killed her husband, she testified that it was all an accident.[26][29]

    There was blood on the floor. I did not know if it was my brother or my husband's blood. My brother could not believe my husband was dead.[26][29]

    —Jamila M'Barek

She further admitted that after her husband was dead, she helped her brother load his body into the boot of his black BMW. She prefaced this admission with additional claims.[29]

    He forced me to put the body in the boot of the car. He forced me to follow him as I thought we were going to a hospital. Then he asked me to go away.[26][29]

    —Jamila M'Barek

Her brother Mohammed M'Barek presented a similar defence.

    I am innocent, my sister is innocent. It was an accident.[26]

    —Mohammed M'Barek

According to Monsieur M'Barek's account of events, he had been drinking heavily and smoking cannabis when he was confronted with the "excited and aggressive" 10th Earl of Shaftesbury. A fight then broke out during which he "accidentally" strangled his brother-in-law while attempting to restrain him. Although M'Barek was rather hazy on the details, he testified, "I don't know how it happened. It happened in a minute".[29] He further stated that he had done everything he could to save the Earl, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage, but it "was too late. He had left us".[26][49]

Mohammed M'Barek expressed frustration with the French authorities that had kept him "in prison for two-and-a-half years for nothing".[29] He thought it was an outrage that the French regarded the dumping of an inconveniently dead body in a ravine as a crime. He even went so far as to appeal to the new French president Nicolas Sarkozy for justice. On the third day of the trial, the courtroom descended into chaos as Monsieur M'Barek burst into tears then jumped to his feet pointing at Shaftesbury's family. He attempted to blame the Ashley-Cooper family for the peer's death, claiming that they were the guilty ones. "You're the guilty ones, you the rich, who want to take his inheritance!"[38][50][51] he shouted as police wrestled with him in the dock. After refusing requests from his lawyer and the judge to sit down and be quiet, M'Barek was taken down to the cells and the hearing temporarily adjourned.[38][50][51]

The French authorities suspected that there was a conspiracy to murder Shaftesbury, when they discovered that Mme M'Barek transferred €150,000 into her brother's bank account the week following her husband's disappearance. The prosecution viewed this as payment for services rendered, although Mme M'Barek testified that she had given her brother the money in order for him to buy a house for their ailing mother.[38][49]

In her defence, Mme M'Barek denied any financial motive in wishing her husband dead and claimed that she had no need of his fortune, stating that she had "always been prosperous".[49] She testified that the source of her prosperity was the generosity of wealthy individuals who were prepared to pay for her company. She named three prominent celebrities as her former clients.[29] All three individuals denied ever meeting Jamila M'Barek and declined to attend court to comment on her allegations or serve as character witnesses.[52]

Mme M'Barek further stated that the arguments she had with her husband had nothing to do with money, but rather arose as a result of Lord Shaftesbury's excessive sexual demands brought on by his seemingly endless injections of testosterone.[38]
Conviction and sentencing
Ashley-Cooper family press conference; left to right: Lady Frances Ashley-Cooper; Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury; and Christina, Countess of Shaftesbury, 2007

The strongest piece of evidence presented by the prosecution were details revealed in a secretly recorded telephone conversation between the defendant and her sister, Naima, in which LMme M'Barek discussed £100,000 (€150,000) blood money paid to her brother. She additionally recounted precisely how she was going to blame her brother for her husband's death.[29][53][54]

The wiretap also uncovered the truth about Mme M'Barek's visit to the remote spot where her husband's body was found. This was supported when downloaded records from the GPS tracking device in her cellphone provided details that she (or at least her cellphone) had been there two days prior to Shaftesbury's death.[29][53][54]

On 25 May 2007, after deliberating for two hours, the jury returned guilty verdicts against both brother and sister. Mme M'Barek and her brother were each sentenced to 25 years in prison. Under French law, they each have an automatic right to appeal their conviction, which results in a retrial of the case.[38]

After the trial, Mohammed M'Barek was admitted to a psychiatric ward. His initial plans to appeal have been dropped. On appeal by his sister, the court was informed that he was in an "incoherent and mostly delirious state" and would be unable to testify on either his behalf or on the behalf of his sister.[55]

On 4 February 2009, Mme M'Barek appeared in a court in southern France to appeal her conviction. After the jury deliberated for four hours, her sentence was reduced from 25 to 20 years at a Court of Appeal in Aix-en-Provence.[56]

With all appeals exhausted, the late peer's son, Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, expressed his relief at the verdict and said he could now get on with his life after closing a "very painful chapter".[57]

Will there be a horse on show in the Craven Meeting at Newmarket tomorrow? Sheikh Mo ruler of the UAE will most likely be present.